Louise M. Antony is an American

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

who is professor of philosophy at the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, i ...

. She specializes in

philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the ontology and nature of the mind and its relationship with the body. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a number of other issues are addre ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist ...

, and

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...

Education and career

Antony received a bachelor's in philosophy from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

in 1975, after which she went to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

for her doctorate, which she received in 1981. Her first academic position was at the

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universi ...

, in 1980-81. She taught at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

from 1981 to 1983;

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

from 1983 to 1986;

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

from 1986 to 1993; the

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

from 1993 to 2000; and the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

from 2000 to 2006, when she moved to the

. In addition to her academic work, Antony has also spoken out about the oppressive climate for women in philosophy. She wrote one of a series of articles in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

's Opinionator column in the fall of 2013, and in 2011 co-founded with

Ann Cudd Ann E. Cudd is an American philosopher. She will be the President of Portland State University beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year. Until then, she is the Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor & Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pitts ...

the Mentoring Project for Junior Women in Philosophy. In 2015-16 she served as president of the eastern division of the

American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarly ...

Philosophical work

In her work on the philosophy of mind, Antony stakes out a middle ground between eliminative materialists like

Daniel Dennett Daniel Clement Dennett III (born March 28, 1942) is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relat ...

, who deny the possibility of the existence of the mind, and groups such dualists and neutral monists, who look for nonphysical explanations of the mind. Antony is also a prominent proponent of analytic feminist philosophy, suggesting that earlier feminist philosophers overlooked the extent to which analytic philosophers had rejected the ideas of empiricists and rationalists, and thus misidentified analytic epistemology with empiricism. She debated

Christian apologist Christian apologetics ( grc, ἀπολογία, "verbal defense, speech in defense") is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity. Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in th ...

William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (born August 23, 1949) is an American analytic philosopher, Christian apologist, author and Wesleyan theologian who upholds the view of Molinism and neo-Apollinarianism. He is Professor of Philosophy at Houston Baptist Univ ...

in 2008 on the topic "Is God Necessary for Morality?".

Personal life

Louise Antony is married to fellow philosopher Joseph Levine and is the mother of Bay Area musician

Rachel Lark Rachel Lark is an Oakland-based folk punk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Known for her sex-positive songs and activism, she has been regularly featured on Savage Love with Dan Savage. Career In 2014, Lark released her first album, ...

Publications

Antony has written a number of peer-reviewed papers, book reviews, and essays. She has also edited and introduced three volumes: ''Philosophers Without Gods'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), a collection of essays by leading philosophers reflecting on their life without religious faith (3); ''Chomsky and His Critics'', with Norbert Hornstein (Blackwell Publishing Company, 2003); and, with Charlotte Witt, ''A Mind of One's Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity'' (Westview Press, 1993), which was expanded in 2002 in a second edition. Other selected essays include "Natures and Norms", "Multiple Realization: Keeping it Real", "Atheism as Perfect Piety For the Love of Reason", "Everybody Has Got It: A Defense of Non-Reductive Materialism in the Philosophy of Mind", and, with Rebecca Hanrahan, "Because I Said So: Toward a Feminist Theory of Authority".

References

External links